The Gandy Dancer

GATS   -   Great American Train Show

November 29 & November 30 (Thanksgiving weekend). Hours are 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

General Club News:

October Business Meeting:

The nominations committee reported the results of their efforts to compile a slate of candidates for club officers. The committee spoke with a number of members to obtain a list of candidates for the various offices, during the month of October. These efforts were met with what has become the usual "enthusiastic" response from the membership. The committee report of candidates for general club officers is as follows: for President, Gary Lewis; for Vice-President, Henry Chandler and Carl Klenk; for Secretary, Dean Lewis; and for Treasurer Don Pomplun. Nominations from the membership are open and will remain open until the election at the November business meeting.

Probationary Members Announced.

A number of people have turned in applications for membership and have started their probationary period.

Steve Colby (O), John Baker (O), and Walt Rosenthal (HO).

Pet Expo Attendence.

We had 701 visitors on Saturday and 791 visitors on Sunday, for a total of 1,498 visitors for the weekend. Thanks to all of the members who staffed the exhibit for this weekend show.

Home and Garden Show:

Thanks to all of those, from both sides of the aisle, that staffed the layouts during this event. We did have a fair number of visitors for the event with 415 on Saturday and 690 on Sunday. The total number of visitors for this event was 1,105.

November Business Meeting

The November general business meeting will be held on Friday, November 7th. Elections for club officers, for the coming year, will be held at this meeting. We will be selecting President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Please plan to attend, nominate a candidate for an office and vote for the candidates of your choice. Big Bertha, will be fired up for the pre-meeting grilling session, weather permitting.

Annual Club Holiday Party Scheduled.

The annual club holiday potluck is scheduled for Friday, December 5th at 7:00 PM. Please join us for our annual holiday season kickoff. Bring your spouse and children to the most festive occasion on the club calendar. The sign-up sheet is posted on the refrigerator door. The sign-up sheet is designed so that everyone will be able to see what others are bringing in order to avoid duplication of others efforts.

Membership Dues are Now Due. It's that time of year again, please see the Treasurer and ante up! Members are reminded that dues are $24 per year.

Happy Veterans Day!

Bennington Spirit of 76 Flag

Air Force

Army

Navy

Marines

Coast Guard

USA 50 State Flag

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Winter is almost here!

The colder months are now arriving. Several of our radiant heating units out of service due to burned out tubes. We have only one replacement tube. All those in favor of freezing, please do nothing. All of those in favor of having some heat in the building let's get the parts and repair the heaters. It would be nice to have the heaters fixed before the first of the year. Long johns are not a viable option!

HO scale news:

Work Nights.

It was decided at the October 3, HO meeting that Friday, October 10 and Friday, October 17 would be work and maintenance sessions. Due to a smaller than anticipated turnout on the 10th it was decided to expand the work sessions to include Friday, October 24 as well.

Members who participated on October 10 were Garret Kirby, Paul Newhouse, Bill Wills, John Kolberg, Keith Peck, Lee Buckner, Gary Lewis, Carl Klenk, Gerald DeWitt, Andy Herrera, Bob Johnson and Seth Abrahams.

Members who participated on October 17 were Garret Kirby, Wayne Toigo, Bob Hopkins, Bob Johnson, Andy Herrera, Keith Peck, Lee Buckner, Paul Newhouse, Carl Klenk, Gary Lewis, John Kolberg and Seth Abrahams. Miles Callen and Brendan Byrne probationary junior members were also present.

Many thanks to the members that participated in the work sessions for the month of October.

For the month of November, it is anticipated that Friday, November 14 and Friday, November 21 will be work nights as there is still much work to be done before GATS (Saturday, November 29 and Sunday, November 30). Signup sheets are upstairs for GATS.

November schedule for run nights.

According to the calendar posted adjacent to the dispatch panel, which shows the scheduling of Analog and DCC running for Friday evenings, the schedule for November is as follows:

DCC:	Friday, November 28.
Analog:	Friday, November 7.

(The letter "A", on the calendar, denotes an analog run night. The letter "D", on the calendar, denotes a DCC run night).

The following remarks are from the HO Scale Trainmaster.

Hello HO Members,

Well, we're winding down another year and embarking on another winter season.

November brings one our biggest shows of the year, The Great American Train Show. That has to be one our best turnouts by most of our club members. I wonder why?

Anyway, I'd really like to thank many of you who have participated and helped out on our Friday work sessions. I'd particularly like to thank Seth Abrahams for organizing work teams and getting the ball rolling. Thanks also to some our prospective HO members who showed their enthusiasm and joined in. That's what our club is all about. We should have a good running operation by the time GATS rolls around.

We will have our last business and HO meetings of the year on November 7th. We hope all of you plan to attend our annual Christmas get together on December 5th, my tack on another year day. I will start giving expense reports of the previous month at the HO meeting.

So, until then, we will see you at our next business meeting.

--Andy Herrera, HO Trainmaster

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O scale news:

As of the printing deadline no information had been received.

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Name the Railroad.

Listed below are the answers to last month's questions about railroad slogans. How many did you get right? Next issue five more railroad slogans to ponder.

1. Which railroad used the slogan "America's Resourceful Railroad"?
2. Which railroad used the slogan "The Omaha Line"?
3. Which railroad used the slogan "The Road of Anthracite"?
4. Which railroad used the slogan "Let's Keep It Moving"?
5. Which railroad used the slogan "Scenic Line of the World"?

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Editorial Notes:

Time to slow down.

For the last four years I have been producing The Gandy Dancer. During that time it has grown to become a substantial production each month. With the addition of the online version the workload has increased and is now approaching the level of being overwhelming. I would like to reclaim some of the time to pursue other interests and activities.

I am faced with two options relating to the newsletter. Either cut back on the amount of time and effort required to produce the newsletter or step down as editor and let someone else take over the production of the newsletter. I do not feel that I can continue to produce the newsletter in its present form, so change is a must if I am to continue to produce the newsletter.

Effective with the December issue the newsletter will contract in size. The museum report, which has been a staple of the newsletter for a while will be appearing periodically instead of monthly. This alone will significantly reduce the amount of work required to produce the newsletter. There will also be some other minor changes that will make my life a bit easier. If anyone has an objection to these changes feel free to contact me and I'll be glad to let you take on some of the work associated with the production of the newsletter. Somehow I doubt there will be a large group clamoring at my door for this chance.

Some of you may notice that I will not be at the club as often as usual on Friday evenings. I feel the need to back off some on that as well. Gee maybe someone else will have to learn how to make coffee and clean the pot too. Or maybe those who just can't bring themselves to make coffee will just have to stop by a local outlet of that big coffee outfit from Seattle before they come down to the club.

--Bob

News of the Prototype.

The Union Pacific Steam program was the subject of two very positive articles in The Omaha World Herald newspaper on Sunday October 19. The articles are quite long and are posted on the club bulletin board by the stairs for interested members to read. The articles are available on line as well.

Steam Ahead but look back.

Working inside a locomotive can be a tough, physical job.

Museum Report:

This month will be a potpourri of photo subjects that will close out the series of reports on the Nebraska trip in 2002. The next report will appear at some point after the first of the year.

Rio Grande F9A 5771 was regularly assigned to pull the California Zephyr and later the Rio Grande Zephyr.	Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 #20 pulled some railfan excursions toward the end of narrow gauge operations on that line.
Dual gauge Armstrong turntable at the Colorado Railroad Museum. Additional display tracks being installed.	2-8-0 #40 approaching the boarding platform at the Georgetown end of the line.
Devil's Gate High Bridge on the Georgetown loop railroad.	Heber Valley Railway 2-8-0 # 618 was originally built for UP subsidiary OSL by Baldwin in 1907.
Heber Valley Railway NW2 1011 was built in 1940 and wears an updated version of its as delivered paint scheme.	If you see one of these its time to stop. DT's liquors Cheyenne, WY

Commercial Connections.

One of our members suggested that other members might be interested in personalized checks. Identity Check Printers has a website with a number of different designs, railroad and other subjects available.

Name the Railroad. Answer section

Listed below are the answers to this month's questions about railroad slogans. How many did you get right?

1. The railroad that used the slogan "America's Resourceful Railroad" was the Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul and Pacific.
2. The railroad that used the slogan "The Omaha Line" was the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha.
3. The railroad that used the slogan "The Road of Anthracite" was the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western.
4. The railroad that used the slogan "Let's Keep It Moving" was Conrail.
5. The railroad that used the slogan "Scenic Line of the World" was the Denver and Rio Grande Western.

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Go to October 2003 Issue

Return to Gandy Dancer Index

Go to December 2003 Issue

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The Gandy Dancer, A monthly publication of the Alameda County Central Railroad Society, Inc.
Copyright ACCRS, Inc 2003 all rights reserved
Last Revised March 4, 2004
For more information contact Robert Johnson, Editor